Residents blame TTC for damage to downtown street

After weeks of construction, the intersection of Dundas Street West and Spadina Avenue has reopened but area residents say the headaches continue thanks to potholes littering the neighbourhood.

And they’re blaming the TTC.

Residents say Baldwin Street has always been pocked with problems but the recent construction has made it worse because TTC buses were forced to divert along it.

“I would call it a death road,” Tyyra Alleyne, who lives in the area told CityNews. “It’s an accident waiting to happen. It really is. Somebody is going to get hurt eventually if they don’t fix this right away.”

Jaqueline White, director of transportation services says three complaints have been lodged and that an investigation will be launched to determine what caused the damage to the street.

Another resident told CityNews she believes the buses caused the problems.

“I live in this neigbourhood. I walk this everyday and the buses are the cause of this, I honestly believe that,” said Alleyne.

Should the damage have been caused by the buses, the length of the repair could be substantial.

“If this is caused by the buses there could be rutting and shifting of the asphalt underground,” said White. “We’re looking into it right now to see what has to be done to make it better. It would be a short term fix it might be a little longer term.”

City crews put up pylons around some of the more heavily damaged sections of the street on Tuesday and began assessing the damage.

The City of Toronto and the TTC have been doing major construction on watermains, streetcar tracks and switches, roads, and sidewalks in the area since mid-July.

The construction at Spadina and Dundas was scheduled to be done by Aug. 31 but finished ahead of schedule. The project cost $1.4 million.